Beccy Owen is soon to release her third album, IMAGO. Not only is it the third to receive a lot of attention, but it's also the third she's decided to fund purely independently and publicly. We ask her why:

Why IMAGO?

Imago is the final stage an insect goes through during its metamorphosis; it’s also called the imaginal stage, which is when the insect attains maturity and gets its wings. I had a rough time with mental illness and depression for a few years until this time last year, when something in me broke, and I went underground for a while. It felt like being in a cocoon. When I emerged I felt like I could do anything - like starting again - and I also felt like I’d grown up a lot. That’s when I decided to make the album.

Imago is also a term in psychology that describes 'the inner unconscious image of the opposite sex' or what you're looking for in a partner but aren't aware of’. I’ve had my fair share of that projected on me, and also from me, onto other people. The album is part-break-up album, part coming-of-age album.

Why did you decide to do this without a record label? 

I'm not against the idea of being in with a record company; there are some great people and some smashing independent ones out there. I just don't seem to have met the right people or had the right kind of conversation, and I always followed my gut. It's led me here. Skint, but getting help, and, most importantly, still going.

I'm part of the old punk ethos, preferring to circumvent the machine of the industry because it's always felt more comfortable and emboldening to be self-sufficient and utilise the talented individuals around me rather than to yield or ignore the gifts that are everywhere.  There's plenty of people who feel that way, and so crowdfunding is a good way of inviting them to show up and bypass the unnecessary hurdles together.

It's an entrepreneurial extension of this DIY approach because it relies on individual steampower to create a collective outcome. And I think it's just about to really get going because that's an inspiring idea: we can do it ourselves. Not only in the arts but in all kinds of areas. Look what happened with Bank of Dave. 

What's your opinion on the way the music industry, once you're attached to a record label, can mould you into something more profitable, no matter what this may transform you into (I'm thinking about the debate surrounding Miley Cyrus  at the moment, and the likes)?

In the past I've had some sizeable offers but to be completely frank, I've never much liked the guys who were making them. They never seemed particularly real or tuned in to me and my music. And they always described myself back to me in ways that were unrecognisable. I’ve been asked to change my appearance, change my music, go into development deals with obese, middle-aged men who knew nothing about what is was like to be a young woman right now but who were employed to sit and write 9-5 with young women like me. It’s completely skewed. Pop music has been commodified since it was invented, and sex and sexuality has been historically and endemically a part of the selling machine. 

I think the shift that we’ve seen in the last few decades is in how unashamed and overt the attachment of money, sex and ‘industrial standards’ has become in music. There are so many sh*t pop stars making dreadful records with the right dimensions who have been conned into thinking their sexuality is their main quality. It’s sad and not okay. I’m aware this can sound pious, and I love to see beautiful people embracing their beauty, but when there’s the strong stench of them and their true gifts being sold down the river as they do this, it makes me feel really sad.

Who are you trying to reach with IMAGO? 

People who enjoy authentic, imperfect, literary, melodic little songs with a big dark heart.  I took a 'one take' approach to each song, playing piano and singing live for each one and keeping the whole take as it came out, warts-n-all.  I'm proud of this unapologetic aesthetic. It's closer to what I've wanted to do on record for years. There's not a huge amount outside of piano and vocal and my own harmonies on this record. As a result, IMAGO is very personal, and I've found that somehow, songs that are intensely idiosyncratic bring about a wider resonance. So I hope it resonates with anyone who’s ever had a relationship that started off perfectly, felt like true love, and then still didn’t work out. 

In your eyes, what will make the album a success?

If people accept it’s beauty and imperfections in equal measure and like both these things. Most of the music that I love listening to on record  has the immediacy and the dynamism of a live performance. That's what we've tried to capture and create on IMAGO.

There seems to be a lot of hype and protest around the issue of illegal online streaming at the moment - would you be offended or flattered if your music got downloaded illegally?

As an independent who makes very little money from music, I’d like people to download it and then decide to pay. Music will always be a meritocracy, and sites like Bandcamp make it really easy for people to at least stream the music before they decide to buy it. I think that’s a good compromise for the way we ingest music and the way people like to satisfy their appetites.

For information of Beccy's latest album launch, and for links to her music, click here